Many of the nation’s most-at-risk “critical infrastructure” sites – like power plants and chemical facilities – have analog redundancies in place that ensure catastrophic cyber-attacks won’t halt operations. For now. But as connectivity increases and as electric grids become “smarter” through efficiency and automation measures, they will only become more and more linked to the internet – and more at risk of infiltration.

Security Debrief is a blog dedicated to homeland security, terrorism and counter-terrorism, intelligence and law enforcement that provides context to the debates, policies and politics that are playing out in Washington, D.C.